Colin Barnett

Colin James Barnett (born 15 July 1950) is an Australian former politician who was the 29th Premier of Western Australia.

He concurrently served as the state's Treasurer at several points during his tenure and had previously held various other portfolios in Western Australia's Court–Cowan Ministry.

Barnett was born in Nedlands, Perth.

He graduated from the University of Western Australia with an economics degree.

Barnett was born in Nedlands, an inner western suburb of Perth, on 15 July 1950.

He was educated at Nedlands Primary School and Hollywood Senior High School.

He began studying geology at the University of Western Australia, but switched to an economics course from which he graduated with an honours degree and later a master's degree.

In 1973, he became a cadet research officer for the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Canberra, being promoted to senior research officer before returning to Perth in 1975 to become a lecturer in Economics at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (later renamed Curtin University).

In 1981, he was seconded to the Confederation of Western Australian Industry, becoming the founding editor of their publication, Western Australian Economic Review.

He was later appointed their chief economist, and served with them until 1985, when he became the executive director of the Western Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Having lectured in economics at the Western Australian Institute of Technology and served as an executive director of the Western Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Cottesloe at a by-election in 1990.

After former state Liberal leader Bill Hassell retired from politics in 1990, Barnett won the ensuing by-election in his old seat of Cottesloe.

He had not previously been a member of the Liberal Party, only joining during the preselection process.

Despite this, Barnett was appointed to the shadow cabinet of Barry MacKinnon shortly after entering parliament, with responsibility for housing and works.

He also added the fuel and energy portfolio in August 1991.

In May 1992, MacKinnon was replaced as leader by Richard Court.

Barnett ran for the deputy leadership against Cheryl Edwardes, and after an initial 16–16 tie was elected by lot.

He retained responsibility for fuel and energy in the subsequent reshuffle of the shadow ministry, and was also given the state development portfolio.

Barnett served as a minister in the Court–Cowan Ministry from 1993 until its defeat at the 2001 election, after which he was made leader of the Liberal Party, replacing the outgoing premier, Richard Court.

After Court led the Liberals to power at the 1993 state election, Barnett became Minister for Resources Development and Energy and later, Minister for Education and Minister for Tourism in the Court–Cowan Ministry.

He was also the Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly and remained deputy leader of the Liberal Party.

He was generally regarded as a competent and successful minister, and was associated with a number of important resource development projects.

The Court government was defeated at the 2001 election.

Court had a somewhat frosty relationship with Barnett and wanted to keep him from becoming leader of the opposition.

While Court was from the conservative wing of the state Liberal Party, Barnett is from the moderate wing.

Court engineered a plan to have federal MP Julie Bishop succeed him instead.

Under Court's plan, both he and Barnett would have resigned from the state legislature.

Bishop would have resigned from federal parliament and handed her seat of Curtin, the safest Liberal seat in the Perth area, to Barnett.

Bishop would have then run in either Barnett's seat of Cottesloe or Court's seat of Nedlands, both reckoned as comfortably safe Liberal seats.

Court would then hand leadership of the WA Liberals to Bishop once she was safely in state parliament.

When Barnett found out about the plan, he claimed to have "choked on his Weet-Bix" at what he described as "an act of treachery or deceit."

However, when Bishop rejected the plan, Court, finding himself in an untenable situation, resigned.

Barnett then took the leadership after defeating his only opponent Rod Sweetman.

He resigned as leader after the unsuccessful 2005 election, but regained the position prior to the 2008 election, where he was elected premier.

At the 2005 state election, Barnett proposed the construction of a canal from the rivers of the Kimberley Ranges in northern Western Australia to Perth to meet Perth's growing water supply problem.

The proposal was costed by Barnett at A$2 billion, however it soon emerged that no feasibility study or detailed costings had been done.

Barnett was sworn into office on 23 September 2008 by Ken Michael, the Governor of Western Australia at the time.

At the 2013 election Barnett and his government were re-elected to a second term.

The Liberals were defeated at the 2017 election, and WA Labor's Mark McGowan succeeded Barnett as Premier.

On 15 December 2017, Barnett announced his intention to resign from politics, which he did on 5 February 2018.